Face | A flat or flattish side or plane, particularly in a rough diamond crystal.
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Face Up | Refers to the viewing angle of a polished diamond, so that the table faces approximately towards the viewer, rather than the viewer looking through the side of the stone.
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Facet, Facets | The flat surface or planes of a polished diamond.
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Facetting, Faceting | The process of grinding and polishing flat faces or sides on diamonds.
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Famous | Most famous diamonds are so because of their impressively large size, others because of their colour, or a combination of these two factors.
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Fancy Colour | Most diamonds are near-colourless, but strongly coloured diamonds are rare and valuable, and are usually known as "fancies".
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Fancy Shape | Applied to any shape diamond except round.
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FAQs, F.A.Q.s | Most frequently asked diamond questions should find their answers on this page, or linked from it.
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Feather | The apt description of a common type of diamond inclusion, an imperfection in the crystal structure of the diamond, believed to be due to stress, many amateurs call this a crack, and professionals may refer to it as a fracture, especially if it reaches the surface. Under magnification, it does appear very much like a feather. Can be quite transparent, or may be opaque and white.
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Field, Charles | Partner of Henry Morse, who developed the first diamond bruting machine (to grind girdles), and other diamond cutting equipment.
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Fifty Eight Facets | The number of facets on a brilliant cut diamond, including the culet.
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Fill, Filled, Filling | Refers to the practice of filling open fissures in diamonds, usually with glass. It is not entirely satisfactory, and we would not recommend it. It should always be notified to the buyer, to do otherwise would be dishonest and fraudulent.
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Finger, Fingers | The "Ring Finger" is the third finger on each hand, but the left hand is the conventional finger for a wedding ring, engagement ring, or eternity ring. De Beers have recently started promoting the "RIght Hand Ring".
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Finish | A word which is loosely used to imply the quality of polish and symmetry on a diamond.
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Fire | The bright flashes of coloured light given off by diamonds due to their differential refraction of light, known as dispersion.
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Fire Rose Cut | One of a number of "flower cuts" developed by Gaby Tolkowsky in about 1997 for De Beers.
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Firestone | Firestone Diamonds plc is a UK-based international diamond mining and exploration company with operations in the Namaqualand region of South Africa, Botswana and the United States.
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Fish Eye, Fisheye | A detrimental optical effect in diamonds which are cut too shallow, particularly with a shallow pavilion, or with an overlarge table. An opaque whiteish area is actually an reflection of the girdle, but it does detract from the appearance of the stone.
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Fissure | A crack, gletz, feather, possibly reaching to the surface.
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Flash Effect | An optical effect seen in fracture filled diamonds which is a useful diagnostic.
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Flat | A lapidaries lapping wheel (lap) for grinding or polishing gemstones, and is often impregnated with diamond. A flat or relatively shallow piece of diamond rough.
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Flats | A term used in grading rough diamonds, applied to diamond crystals of irregular shape with flat parallel sides like pieces of broken glass.
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Flat Screen TVs | Using diamond dust may lead to cheaper wide and flat screen monitors and LCD TV screens, according to University of Bristol and Advance Nanotech.
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Flaw | In inclusion or other feature which is visible or reduces clarity in diamonds or other gems.
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Flawless | Without any inclusions or features adversely affecting clarity.
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Florentine | The name of a large famous diamond.
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Fluorescence | Often mis-spelt as flourescence by those who should know better. The emission of visible light displayed by some diamonds and other gems when viewed in ultra-violet or other light. Cause frequent concern by consumers on discovering that one diamond or more in a cluster glow under "disco" lighting.
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For a Few Dollars More | How al Qaeda moved into the diamond trade, 1993 report by Global Witness.
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Forever | Word connected with diamonds by the Ayer advertising agency in the phrase "A Diamond is Forever", also celebrated in a song of similar name "Diamonds are Forever" sung by Shirley Bassey in the 1971 James Bond film of the same name.
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Four Cs | The four well-known factors affecting the price of a diamond.
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Fracture | An inclusion in a diamond, usually one reaching the surface.
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Fracture Fill, Filled, Filling | A non-permanent and less than ideal method of improving the apparent clarity of diamonds by filling cracks in them with glass.
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Full Cut | With 58 facets, i.e. usually a brilliant cut, and usually round.
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There are currently over 600 entries in this table.
Over 90 of them have page links to a page on this site. Eventually, we intend to add a more complete description for most entries, each on its own page.
Please watch this space!